Raila promises tough war on corruption, impunity
Azimio la Umoja Presidential aspirant Raila Odinga has promised to jail the corrupt including his family should he be elected President in August polls.
Raila said that under his administration, nobody will be indispensable, adding that to be successful in dealing with corruption it must start from the family level.
While responding to questions raised after his Chatham House speech yesterday evening, Raila was categorical that if a government takes drastic measures to jail the corrupt not only in the public sector but across the criminal justice system.
“Nobody will be indispensable in my government. If you want to successfully win the war against corruption then you must begin from your family. If any member of your family is caught in corruption, you must ensure that action is taken against him. I give an example of President Kagame whose own brother was arrested and imprisoned, he would go to visit him to tell him sorry but this is where you belong,” said Raila.
He went on: “If you take those kind of actions, then people will begin to know that things are not as usual. It is business unusual. It must be business unusual in dealing with this hydra-headed animal called corruption.”
He said action should not only be taken on public servants, but be extended to the prosecutors and the judicial officers, adding that the some prosecutors refuse to prosecute cases in court.
He claimed that there are some cases that take long to be completed, adding that such after the suspects have been released on bail or bond then stall.
“We must take action not just on public servants or the citizens but the whole criminal justice system. There are prosecutorial authorities who refuse to prosecute cases. There are cases which were taken to court at the beginning of 2018 have not been prosecuted todate,” said Raila.
“We will do a cleaning exercise from the police, prosecution authorities up to the Judiciary to ensure that our system works properly in the interest of our people,” said Raila.
According to Raila, his administration will continue with the positive works and not inherit the negative things of Jubilee government.
He said that President Uhuru Kenyatta has in the past admitted that the government loses Sh2billion daily, explaining that it is because he has a divided government.
“We will not inherit the negative things of the Jubilee government. We will continue with the positive ones.
“The President is being undermined by his deputy. If a person is arrested, charged, he claims so and so is being targeted because he is associated with him. Internal contradictions within the government. I do not have that kind of baggage. I am coming with clean hands.”
Raila further charged that his role of opposition did not collapse and neither did he and his troops go into government.
“We remain what is known here as ‘Her majesty’s loyal opposition’. We don’t just oppose for the sake of opposing, but oppose and also offer constructive alternatives. This is what has been happening in Kenya.There have been fallacious statements that we have opposition in government and government in opposition,” said Raila.
He explained the hypocrisy of his political nemesis deputy president William Ruto, saying that unlike Ruto, he uses his personal funds to travel abroad together with his entourage.
“What is so called ‘government in opposition is leaving in officialdom. The DP spent over Sh100 million. He is traveling on taxpayers money with all the entourage he came with. I had to pay my travel expenses to come here. The government has paid for none of the people who have accompanied. He (Ruto) cannot be a government in opposition,” he said.
He told the participants that the ‘Handshake’ came after the National Super Alliance (NASA) discovered that they had won the August elections and decided to swear their presidential candidate.
“Handshake’ came as a result of the crisis at the time. We went somewhere and we had 38 coffins. We again went to the City Mortuary and we found 27 corpses victims of police brutality with a number of people with wounds in various hospitals. Loss of lives and economy was slowing down,” said Raila.
